27 September 2010

Today - 27 September - is the due-date of my boys, when they should have been born if they were in-time babies.

For this date, all of them have reached 3 kilo mark! :)

On Saturday, Ralf weighed 3460 grams, Fred 3250 grams and Sten 3050 grams.

On Friday, we went to see our family doctor and she also measured the boys - Ralf and Fred were 50.5 cm tall and Sten 49.5 cm tall.

So, for their due-date, they have reached quite normal baby size, haven't they? Our doctor was very happy with these results and now, we can take the feeding process a bit easier. Sure we will still keep a routine (with triplets, I find it impossible to let them eat when they want) - but now, we try to feed them after every 4 hours during the night (probably it takes about 2 weeks when they reach 4 h, step by step) and during day time, after every 3 hours like before.

PS - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST FRIEND KRISTI! (She has come to help me once a week... and we are very grateful for that! :))

Photo: Taken on Friday when the boys were ready to get to the car and see the family doctor

Big Brother

Kert is now a Big Brother. I think it's a very big change in a 14-year-old boy's life, who has been an only child so far. But I must say he has enjoyed taking care for his little 3 brothers very much - he is our biggest help during the evening feeding times. His "friend" is Ralf - he's already an expert feeding him! :) Ralf is also the name which was picked by Kert, so everything turned out just as it should be. Kert always asks if I need any help with the babies. Well, I ALWAYS need help... but I try not to occupy Kert too much as I'm afraid he'd get bored if he has to do TOO much. And even right now, he does a lot - we are happy to have such a good big brother for the triplets!

Sleeping angels...

During the first weeks of premature babies' lives, their daily routine consist of eating and sleeping. They hardly cry and hardly are awake. Now, when they are already 1,5 months old and are starting to act like "normal" babies, they are much more awake and know how to cry as well. It's now 8 days to go to my actual due date when the babies supposed to be born (if there was just 1 single baby) - 27 September.
Here you can see some photos of our sleeping babies - sometimes they really do look like little angels! :)
Fred and Ralf:
Ralf and Fred:Ralf and Fred:

Fred and Sten:

Sten:

Sten:

Fred:

Ralf:

Out for a walk

Our doctor in the hospital allowed us to go out with the boys already during the first days when we arrived at home. So we did! And the boys love it outside - they sleep so well and afterwards, have a good appetite.

Every day, from 2-3 p.m. we are walking outside, around our village, with neighbour-Aune and neighbour-Glen. It's a shame we can't walk longer because of the long eating rounds, but hopefully soon, the boys eat quicker and we get more time to be outside.
We are having a triplets' pram which is HUGE, but I'm already used to it and can navigate with it really well. It has been the best thing to buy it - I cannot imagine life without the pram anymore - it's good to get outside of the garden sometimes and take a walk, even when it's only around our village!

1st birthday - 1 month old

/I wish I had more time to post about our boys/

On Saturday, September 4, our 3 little angels turned 1 month old. It's amazing how time flies - I still sometimes wonder am I really a mom of 4... It sounds so weird to think about it - just a month ago, our family consisted of 3 human beings and 2 dogs; and suddenly, the number of human beings have doubled. This rapid change is hard to adopt, but sure I'm proud of my new big family.

We have been home for 2,5 weeks and it's super-busy, even hard to describe how life has changed. I'm all for the boys now; sometimes going to the toilet may even be a dream! :) But the boys grow and one day, they'll be big enough to give a smile to their mom which will be the biggest gift I can wish for right now.

Our life goes around eating... this is the main worry with premature babies - their eating is not stabile and there is always 1 boy who to worry if you do not pay attention enough. Sometimes it's Fred, sometimes it's Sten and sometimes, it's even Ralf. You never know who decides to stop to be brave enough to eat the whole bottle. And it's vital that they eat everything, otherwise they loose all their power at once... So far, we have been able to keep their weights growing and this is the most important. On their 1st birthday, Ralf was 2,5 kg; Fred 2,3 kg and Sten almost 2,1 kg.

We didn't celebrate their birthday with a big party, of course, since all we can do right now, is having a strict daily routine to make sure they grow (and there is no time for inviting someone over), but we had a plum cake and thought about our little miracles when we ate it! :)

Kert has been a big help with the boys - his job is to feed Ralf at 9 p.m. eating round and he is doing great with it; he already knows so well how Ralf behaves while eating and what he needs to be able to eat the whole bottle. The boys still eat 100% of my breast-milk, however, soon it will hard to have so much milk that they need to grow, so I predict that after 1 month, we need to five a little addition to my breast-milk for them.

We want to thank all our friends for support, all the beautiful greetings cards and presents and all the nice words! It means so much to us...

Photos

Daddy with the boys:

The elder brother feeding baby-Ralf and Erik feeding baby-Sten:

I feeding baby-Fred: